During medical training at UCLA, I had the good fortune to learn from Norman Cousins, a Jewish writer, editor and adjunct professor of medical humanities. Despite being misdiagnosed with tuberculosis at age 11, he set out as a boy to “discover exuberance.” He believed that positive emotions are the key to fighting illness — a prime example he used was his own battle with a severe form of arthritis.
In his book, “Anatomy of An Illness,” Cousins describes how he fought his potentially life-threatening condition by taking megadoses of vitamin C, and watching Marx Brothers movies and TV sitcoms. “Laughter is a form of internal jogging,” he wrote. “It moves your internal organs around. It enhances respiration. It is an igniter of great expectations.”
His underlying belief was that positive emotions induce favorable biochemical changes in the body so that healing is more likely to occur.
Proverbs 17:22 states: “A joyful heart makes for good health; despondency dries up the bones.” Clearly, a correlation between cheerfulness and health has been recognized for centuries, but how are the two connected? Do optimistic people simply take better care of themselves than pessimistic people? Does being in good health itself lead to optimism? Or are both explanations correct?
The results of the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term national health study of more than 160,000 postmenopausal women, showed that cynicism and hostility were associated with a higher risk of heart disease and cancer, and optimism led to longer life.
In a review of 83 studies published in the 2009 Annals of Behavioral Medicine, optimism was found to be a significant predictor of positive health outcomes in relation to heart disease and stroke, pregnancy, cancer, and stronger immunity — even against the common cold. Benefits also included lower rate of depression and better coping in times of stress.
But one has to be careful not to overstate the impact of optimism on health. If a person gets sick with heart disease or cancer, does that mean the illness was that person’s fault? We can’t assume that the root of all illness is negative thinking and that positive thinking will provide cures.
Our emotions are only one determinant of our overall health, and wherever we find ourselves on the optimism-pessimism spectrum, it’s important to make wise health-care decisions.
I’ve known patients who were pessimistic about having a heart attack because a parent died at an early age. Their fear pushed them to avoid cholesterol and exercise rigorously. On the other hand, some optimists think they will never get sick, so they shun vaccinations or important screening tests for cancer. Other patients have suffered trauma or lost a loved one, so it’s inappropriate to just tell them to be optimistic.
Whatever your outlook, it’s important to understand your own situation.
Most of us are born with a predisposition to see the glass half full or half empty, but innate outlooks can be changed. Here are some recommendations worth practicing:
• Express gratitude.
• Show compassion.
• Exercise regularly to increase the pleasure hormones in your brain.
• Be forgiving toward yourself.
• Engage with people through friendly games such as bridge, Scrabble or poker.
• Volunteer.
• Eat a healthy diet and don’t drink in excess. When alcohol wears off, it can act as a depressant.
• Surround yourself with supportive, positive-thinking people.
• Pray. The mind-body connection is promoted by praying, helping to relieve stress and worry and indirectly improving your emotional and physical condition.
The fact is that our emotions affect our physical health. You do have some control over your life. It’s never too late to practice behaviors that will help you see the glass at least half full.
Jerry Saliman, M.D. is a volunteer internist at Samaritan House Medical Clinic in San Mateo and a contributing medical blogger for the Peninsula Jewish Community Center (www.pjcc.org) in Foster City. He retired from Kaiser South San Francisco after a 30-year career.